A fashion item particularly popular among young people today is a “paracord” bracelet comprised of a strap of woven parachute cords (paracords) connected by a side release buckle, with the buckle personalized by a graphic such as a person's given name, a favorite team, a city, state, saying, or the like. Side release buckles are well known and commonly used to connect straps together, such as in connection with backpacks, luggage, and a wide variety of other items where straps are used and need to be releaseably joined. Side release buckles generally comprise a male component commonly referred to as the “hook” and a female component commonly referred to as the “catch”. Throughout, it will be understood that the terms “female” and “catch” refer to the buckle component that releaseably receives the component referred to here as either the “male” or “hook”.
Known paracord bracelets comprise a woven strap with a side release buckle wherein the hook component of the buckle is non-releaseably attached to one end of the strap and the catch component is non-releaseably attached to the other end of the strap. The bracelet is secured to and released from a person's wrist by connecting and disconnecting the buckle male and female components.
Such bracelets are typically offered in a variety of strap variations, such as colors or weaves, sizes, and personalized graphic on the face of the buckle catch.
In order for a brick-and-mortar retailer, for example, to offer to customers a bracelet personalized with the name “Aidan”, for example, with 10 strap variations and three sizes (small, medium and large), it is necessary to have an inventory 30 bracelets. In order to accommodate multiple demands for the same combination of name, strap variation and size for the one name “Aidan”, it is reasonable to inventory 5 of each for a total of 150 bracelets for that one name. To offer 50 names (or other personalized graphic) requires 7,500 bracelets. This requires a large initial inventory and concomitant cost and the need to frequently resupply the inventory.
With the present invention, for the same choices—5 each of 10 strap variations in 3 sizes (150) and 5 each of 50 different buckle names in one size (250)—a total of only 400 pieces are required.